The Question joins the Teen Titans
by AssasinNinja
Summary: What if the Question was a teenager along with the Teen Titans? What if he joined their team. Just a little story.


Victor Sage gripped the handle of his canvas duffel bag tightly in his gloved hand. Oh boy, was he nervous. He had his whole life in that duffel bag, his favorite books, his years of notes on crime-fighting and conspiracy theories, and most importantly: his pressed and folded tailored suits.

His polaroid land camera hung from a strap over his left shoulder, and the keys to his dark blue Bentley were one of many things in his pocket.

Everything that had any value to him, practical or otherwise, was either in his car or on his person. His Bent' was parked in the garage of his professor, miles away from his accessibility. If he was accepted, he hoped he would be given a parking space inside the island's giant tower.

"You can do this Vic, just ring the doorbell." He exhaled deeply and shook the jitters out of his body. He could wait out here until the sun set, or he could ring the doorbell and do what he needed to do.

_DING...DONG!_

How peculiar, he thought to himself, for a super hero headquarters to have such an ordinary doorbell.

A small round door opened above the larger, human sized one. From within, a camera on a mechanical arm extended, it looked Vic over then retreated back into its hole.

"hurm.." Vic rubbed his masked chin in confusion, he had expected a slightly warmer welcome than that. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned to walk away.

"Stop."

Vic turned back around, thankful that he was being asked to stay. Though he had feigned apathy, in truth he was hurt that he had been rejected so quickly. Now it all made sense, they were just seeing who was outside. The real examination, was soon to begin.

"What's your name?" A gritty voice called from an unseen speaker, "What do you want?"

"I am called The Question, and I wish to join the Teen Titans."

"Hang on. I'm unlocking the door."

Vic's heart raced in excitement, all the anticipation and planning of the last few months had led up to this critical moment. The door slid open, and The Question stepped inside.

When he had passed the door, it closed shut behind him. He found himself in a long hallway, leading to a closed door. He pulled off his knee-length kaki rain coat and folded it under his arm. Adjusting his tie as he walked, he made his way to the closed door. When he reached the door, he rapped his gloved knuckles against it softly, resonating a knock in a muffled tone.

The door slide open automatically, shocking him slightly. A large room stood on the other side of the doorway, complete with couches and a giant monitor, as well as a large kitchen and a beautiful view. He of course observed all of these things, and memorized the objects in the room almost immediately, but the first thing he noticed was not the characteristics of the area, rather, who occupied it.

There, standing and sitting in various places of the room, were the Teen Titans.

"Um, hello." He waved at them casually, but on the inside he was wrought with excitement.

"'Sup dude." The Titan Vic knew as Beast Boy uttered kindly enough, but his attention was completely devoted to whatever video game he was currently playing. However none of the other Titans acted as kindly, in fact they were all staring at him quite harshly, and Vic felt a sudden drop in confidence.

"Why do you want to join the Titans?" Robin asked. His expression a masked caricature of suspicion.

"I want to fight crime and help people." Robin opened his mouth to comment, but Vic hadn't finished, "I want to seed out the underbelly of corruption and fight it at its core, but I also want to prevent the spread of smaller crimes. I want this world to be a better place, inside and out, and nothing is to small of a cause to fight for."

He had worked on that speech since he was probably six years old. Robin regarded it as if it meant nothing.

"All right, a lot of people want to make the world a better place, how do you hope to do it?"

"Like, my skill-set and stuff?" Robin nodded, "Well I am an expert detective, the best in the world."

Robin scoffed, knowing full-well who the World's Greatest Detective truly was.

"Besides Batman of course." Vic added quickly, but Robins contempt remained unchanged.

"Anyone can say that they're a great detective. Why don't you prove it?" The boy wonder challenged.

Vic nodded, and pointed to Robin. One by one, he revealed the Titan's identity.

"Dick Grayson, Garfield Logan, Koriand'r, Victor Stone, and..." His finger remained pointed at Raven, "Well, you don't really hide who you are do you?"

The Titans all stood in relative shock, but Vic really wanted to drive the point home.

"Do you guys want to know the identities of the Justice League too?"

"I think if you reveal anything more you might become a liability." Robin warned Vic politely, he nodded in understanding.

"I like to think of myself as being pretty adept in many forms of martial arts as well, and as you can tell, I am also a very good dresser." He motioned his hands in the direction of his smart outfit, but none of the Titans seemed to be impressed.

Oh well, he thought, of course people in spandex wouldn't appreciate a finely tailored suit.

"What about your face?" Cyborg asked, interested.

"Just a mask..." Vic answered honestly, "A way to hide my identity, nothing more."

He looked around at the generally disappointed faces of the Titans, then shrugged.

"We need to put you through a combat trial to make sure you're competent in battle. Even if you fail that, you're welcome to stay on the team as an in-base operative, no field-work, but you'll still be able to help us solve crimes."

"Excellent, when does the trial begin?"

"Whenever you're ready." Robin dropped into a fighting stance, and Vic realized that they were going to test him right here, right now.

In embarrassment he raised a finger, the universal gesture for "hang on a second", and dropped his duffel bag on the ground. Then he folded his rain coat and placed it on top of the duffel, followed by his camera on top of that.

"Okay, I'm ready." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants, and waited for Robin to make a move.

* * *

The Question pulled Robin's arm hard, enough to hold it right at the edge of the socket. Then Robin grabbed the Question by the wrist with his free hand, and started to pull it backwards, just to the point of breaking. They were both on the ground, covered in bruises and each other's blood.

"I think that's enough you two!" Cyborg pushed the two apart, narrowly stopping the breaking of bones and the popping of shoulders.

"So..." The Question panted, his hands on his knees, "Did... I.. pass?"

Robin nodded, but was too exhausted to speak. Besides sparring with Batman, he had never met such a worthy challenge in a one-on-one fight.

"Yeah..." Robin said, "Starfire? Can you... take him... to one of the... empty rooms?"

Starfire nodded happily and grabbed the Question by the hand, dragging him out of the room. He barely had time to grab his stuff before they left.

"Wow... that guy can fight." Cyborg stated, patting Robin hard on the back.

"Eh, I bet I could beat him." Beast Boy said, still playing his video game.

"Man, when are you gonna give me a turn?" Cyborg asked, leaping onto the couch next to his green friend.

Robin walked into the kitchen, and grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator. Sighing, he took a seat across from his friends, and mused over the events of the day.

"He seemed strange." Raven noted.

"Oh yeah, a bit weird. Nice tie though." Beast Boy said, handing the controller off to Cyborg, "My turn again when you die."

"I can't believe we have a new team member." Cyborg said, beginning his turn with an exaggerated pushing of the start button, "It's always been just us five."

Robin stood up and walked back into the kitchen.

"I want to find out more about him." He logged on to the kitchen's computer, and began searching for "The Question". After a few minutes, he found a blog under the same name, with a logo that looked suspiciously familiar.

"I think I found his blog guys."

The others paid him no heed, they were too enthralled in whatever they happened to be doing. So he logged onto the blog, using a seemingly incognito user name, and started gathering as much information as he could. As he was researching, Starfire returned to the room.

"He is now packing in. He shall return when he is done."

"You mean moving in? Or unpacking?" Beast Boy asked playfully.

"Um, yes." Starfire answered, confused.

Robin turned his attention back to the blog, to where his surprise, a message had appeared in his chat window.

{Hello Robin.} It read. The user who submitted it was identified as, The? To the untrained eye it looked like the word the with a question mark on it, but Robin could now confidentially say he knew who was messaging him.

{Question? How did you know it was me?}

{Well for starters, you logged into the sight only a few minutes after I left the room, I usually only get about one new follower a month, and you're the second one today. Plus, "Night-Wing" just screams Bat-family in my opinion}

{O}

{You've been digging pretty deep, I monitor every member of this website constantly, and you've been trying to learn my history. If you want to know more about me, just ask. I'd be happy to tell you and the team.}

{member:The?, has logged off}

Robin shut off the computer and left the kitchen, wandering aimlessly to an open couch. As he sat down, The Question returned to the room.

"This really is a stellar place you guys have got here." He said, walking into the kitchen. He pointed at the fridge, "May I?"

"Help yourself."

The Question reached into the refrigerator, and pulled out a bottle of water, just as Robin had minutes earlier. Vic had left his duffel bag in his room, but he had brought with him a book, and taking the water bottle, he sat on the couch next to Raven. Flipping the book open to about 200 pages in, he begins to read.

"So how is everybody?" He said, flipping to the next page.

"I am fine, thank you." Starfire replied happily, though none of the other Titans jumped to respond. Vic turned another page, "Um, what are you reading there?"

"American Psycho." Vic answered, a strange humor in his voice.

"That sounds quite hilarious!" Starfire assumed naively. Vic hander her the book, open to a specific page.

"Read this, and tell me how hilarious it sounds."

Starfire started reading happily enough, but as she got about the third of the way down the page, her face transition dramatically. When she had finished, she spoke,

"I did not know such things could be done to a human person." She said, her voice filled with horror.

"Well it is fiction, but I don't doubt it could be done if someone was cruel enough to try." Vic reassured her. Starfire was visibly shaken, and remained so for some time. Meanwhile, the rest of the Titans returned to a relative silence.

Then, a familiar alarm went off.

"There's a break in at a nearby bank! Let's go!" Robin shouted above the alarm.

Vic dropped his book on the couch, and followed the others out of the tower.

* * *

The bank was dark inside and the door was still locked when they arrived, the police hadn't even showed up yet. Cyborg blasted the lock, and the Titans rushed inside, only to find the building empty.

"We missed them! Starfire, Raven, fly above the city! See if you can track them down! Beast Boy, Cyborg, Question, come with me, we'll monitor the ground! Titans, G-"

"One second Robin..." Vic walked around the room slowly, "Anyone else notice anything odd about this robbery?"

"We don't have time for this man!" Cyborg paced impatiently.

"No signs of forced entry, a door that was still locked when we arrived." Vic began lifting fallen objects off the floor, until finally he removed a broken cash registar, revealing a hole in the floor, "This, was an inside job."

He pulled at the hole, and lifted a section of the floor up as if it were a door, revealing a black tunnel.

"Cyborgs first?" He asked politely, and the half-machine nodded, shining a brillant light down the tunnel as he stepped into it.

"Good work Question." Robin said, patting the newest Titan on the back as he too descended. Beast Boy followed him.

"Hey dude, Questions a pretty hard name to say, I'm just gonna call you Q. Is that cool?"

"That's fine." Vic smiled behind his mask, and followed Beast Boy into the tunnel. Starfire entered behind him, and Raven covered up the door again before sinking through the floor. They walked on for a few minutes, silently.

"Strangers in the night... exchanging glances, wandering in the night..." Vic started singing softly, "What were the chances, we'd be sharing love?"

"Dude, are you singing?" Beast Boy asked, reflecting the confusion of his teammates.

"Just trying to lighten the mood." Q answered modestly.

"Before the night was throuuuuuuugh!" Cyborg sang, "Man, my grandpa loved that song!"

"Your grandpa had good tastes-"

"Shh!" Robin raised a closed hand, "I think I hear them."

Sure enough, several feet in front of them, an open door led to an underground hide-out, where several thugs were relaxing on a couch, counting their money, and sleeping.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to give all that back!" Robin shouted, taking the petty crooks off-guard. They tried to run, but the Titans stopped them all, with minimal effort. They were all in a great mood as they returned to Titan's Tower.


End file.
